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Off to good old Bavaria! This year’s Oktoberfest takes place in Munich (Germany) from 20 September to 5 October. The website of the world’s biggest beer festival brings goose pimples to every designer. It more looks like a tourist booking website rather than a website for a great, international festival. They should definitely have a think about that. However, a nice design can be seen on this year’s official poster for 181st "Wiesn". The posters that won #2 and #3 in the contest are a bit disappointing from a designer’s perspective as they don’t really transport the spirit of the Oktoberfest. The winner poster does so though. http://www.oktoberfest.de The next blog post is the final part of my festival design series and it features the UK! #festival #posterdesign #oktoberfest

Today’s blog post is about the web design of the probably most famous festival in the world – Tomorrowland. Originating from Boom (Belgium), it now also takes place in Atlanta (USA) and Sao Paulo (Brazil). The festival’s concept was perfectly translated into the design concept of the website. Playful flowers, vintage style paper with burn marks and an interesting grid effect in the background definitely transport a feel of fantasy and dreamland. You see at first sight that design professionals worked on this website. The corporate design was perfectly executed here, very well done! http://www.tomorrowland.com My next blog post features a festival in England ... #posterdesign #tomorrowland

The infamous Glastonbury festival takes place in Great Britain every year (this year from 25 to 29 June). I saw a poster with some confirmed live acts. As soon as I saw that poster, I thought of an advertisement for a BBQ sauce or a BBQ party. Black, red, white combined with Stencil like fonts is not really a good idea. What did the designer think when doing this? I would not want to know. Also, the official Glastonbury poster is a shock moment for the eyes. A pro could not have done this – maybe a designer that retired 10 years ago. But: The website definitely makes up for that design faux pas! A great and consistent typography scheme and colours that perfectly match make the website look just fantastic. It transports a vintage and hippie style feeling what stands for the festival. Poster: Flop Poster: Flop (BBQ sauce or festival? Who knows.) Website: Top! http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/ #glastonbury #festival #posterdesign

This year’s IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hanover showed many exciting new vehicles and technologies. Many visitors and journalists from all over the world came to see what’s new in the business. Here are photos of my personal highlights: (Copyright photos: Helene Clara Gamper / HCG corporate designs) In the course of the IAA Commercial Vehicles, I designed issue no. 8/2014 of Austria’s largest commercial vehicle magazine "Blickpunkt LKW+BUS". See it here as print PDF, here as iPhone app or here as iPad app featuring many interactive functionalities. In addition to that, my film partner Ashley Wiggins produced an exclusive short film: Also want an editorial design for print or an app magazine? Or you want a professional video? Simply send me an email , I’m looking forward to hearing from you! #bus #truck #commercialvehicle #iaa

I have news for those of you who still believe that tablets are just a „toy“ for the young generation. You are not totally wrong, but these numbers might knock you off your feet: 46 % of the 14 to 29 year olds in Germany have a tablet, an amazing 42 % (!!) of the 30 to 49 year olds, as well as 34 % of the 50 to 64 year olds have a tablet (BITKOM). This negates the thesis of tablets being interesting for the youngsters only. It is really astonishing how fast those handy devices are becoming more and more popular. Beginning of 2013, only 13 % of the Germans aged 14+ owned a tablet. This number doubled by beginning of 2014 to 26 %, and rose again until autumn 2014 to 34 %. The vast tablet boom might be based on the fact that they are very easy to use. Let me give you an example: My mother (born in 1958) was hesitating a long time to buy a tablet until I could convince her to buy an Apple iPad. She is a woman that considers smart phones with touch displays "high science". She has neither a smart phone nor is she working with devices that I would call "technologically advanced". Everything "too complicated". After a few weeks of using the iPad, she said to me "The iPad has been the best investment for years and I would never want to give it away." She is not the only one having such an aha experience. According to a survey, 58 % of the Germans would not want to miss their tablet any more. Hence, optimizing content for tablets (may it be a web shop, magazine or just an ordinary website) has become crucial if you want to be successful with your product on the internet. But what about smart phones? Only 20 % of the Germans above 18 download one to maximum two apps per month (source: FOCUS, comScore). Practical apps (most of all Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Maps, Youtube) seem to be enough for the smart phone users. The demand for new, more or less "usefull" apps is stagnating. The smart phone app market is still rising by 27 % per year on a global scale, but in Germany only by 12 % (App Economy Report 2014). Particularly Asia shows high growth rates here, in Europe the market is more or less saturated. #app #ipad #tablet

Even after the multimedia and computer discounter Saturn had got rid of its slogan "Geiz ist geil" (translates "Tight is right."), the "tight is right" mentality still lives in some parts of our society like an undefeatable bacteria. So it is not suprising that there is a new discounter in the design field: Tailor Brands. Just one thing beforehand: Tailor Brands does not do corporate designs but only logos. A visual identity or a successful branding is not even offered by Tailor Brands. Minimal effort for maximum success? Aha. Alright. I wanted to test it and find out how good or bad Tailor Brands really is. Based on my own business HCG corporate designs, I chucked on the automatic logo creation machine on the internet, because I wanted to see how the HCG corporate designs logo would look like according to the Tailor Brands algorithm. What is positive, is the fact that Tailor Brands seems to understand that a logo is not just a nice looking symbol but requires more background information. But Tailor Brands stops exactly there. The name, the business and a few keywords are apparently enough to generate a logo. Many "industry standards" are scanned through to create my logo. Industry standards? What? A logo has to transport the USP, the unique selling proposition and what makes the business stand out from the competitors. The opposite of that is industry standards. Tailor Brands obviously thinks that I as a designer should have a logo that looks similar to another designer’s logo. By then, my mind filled with design expertise got very frightened. I augured ill. And that’s exactly how it turned out to be: The logo result didn’t surprise me as a designer. However, the level of unprofessionality was shocking. Tailor Brands chucked a logo on my screen that had zero message, didn’t transport my business’ philosophy, was full of typographic mistakes, had a horrible kerning, an unprofessional size ratio between logo type and symbol and to make matters worse, the logo looked like as if I had a bakery but not a design agency. Correct logo Logo crated by Tailor Brands Conclusion: Years of design expertise, complex situations and understanding the company’s philosophy, target groups and future plans simply cannot be replaced by an automatic algorithm on the internet. This was once again proven – this time by Tailor Brands. Thanks for that confirmation, Tailor Brands. You also want a professional corporate design? Simply send me an email ! #branding #logo

When I was in South America this summer, I also visited the possibly most beautiful city of the continent: Quito, the capital of Ecuador. I already knew that the Ecuadorians love good food. What was new to me, however, was the fact that they have their own shop for Ecuadorian chocolate. Republica del Cacao processes local cocoa and wants to create a feel of adventure, discovery, authenticity and real, genuine chocolate enjoyment. The corporate design on the website as well as the POS store design transport this feeling perfectly. That is not only chocolate at its best, but also branding that is taken into practise perfectly. Also want a unique branding that really sells your products? Get in touch with me! #branding #chocolate #ecuador #quito #pos #shop

As an app magazine designer, I’m always looking for new inspirations and challenges as regards the tablet magazine market. High-quality design and usability are things I focus on most. So I took a closer look at this year’s winner of the Digital Magazine Awards. Learning from the best is always good, right? The Wired Magazine’s UK issue won the title "Digital Magazine of the Year 2014". But before going into detail about the Wired Magazine, I want to talk about another publication that had also made it into the DMA’s final round: the TOUCH Magazine. This magazine comes out in two languages (English and Spanish) and had a special issue titled "1900’s special edition". What was considered sexy around 1900 (okay, it is a man’s magazine) and what else happened around that time? This is presented in a beautiful and playful way with many animations and interactive features that really look cool. Beautiful to look at. But: Too much of a good thing is not good. As a designer, I’m of course very critical and I have to point out that the animations put the content aside and the reader might be overwhelmed by all the buttons to tap. I have asked some friends to test the magazine and give me feedback. Their opinions: "You have to be extraordinarily fit using apps for reading this magazine." "It is very beautiful, but exhausting." "I did not want to continue reading after two pages." Especially the continuously (!) flashing navigation buttons destroy the beauty of the app, what I find really sad. To make matters worse, the reading flow is not logical and quite disturbing. I have to swipe to the right, then upwards, then downwards, simply confusing. The TOUCH Magazine shows that too much clutter on the screen can really put readers off. This cannot be something the publisher aims for. The British Wired Magazine offers a much better experience. This app has a fantastic impressive layout, a logical reading flow, perfectly used animations, useful interactive features and top stories. Also the typography is executed very wisely, the font scheme is perfectly adapted for a pleasant reading experience on a tablet. Moreover, there are highly interactive app advertisements that the user can really engage with nicely. As a designer, I try my hardest to find any flaws – and remain unsuccessful. This is how a tablet magazine should be! The Wired Magazine (UK) is a positive example for the content being in the focus and interactive features and animations sublty supporting the content as well as the reading flow. Once again, the British have proved that they are at the top of their game when it comes to media: Using brainpower, top-notch design and a full understanding of how app magazines work. So, let’s hope this understanding also gets over to the rest of Europe and our publishing houses stop lamenting and start earning money with really (!) good app magazines. By the way: The Wired Magazine is also published as an app for the German speaking market. Unfortunately, this app is just a copy of the print magazine with the exact same layout so that reading it on a tablet becomes very challenging. Slightly pixelated copy, always having to zoom in and out and a complete lack of tablet usability make the German Wired Magazine a typical App Store shelf wamer, in my opinion. I’m happy to buy the print issue, but the app? No, thanks. If you want to publish on a tablet too, simply send me an email . I’m looking forward to helping you. #app #digitalpublishing #magazine #dma #tablet

I saw many great things in my recent Thailand holiday: golden temples, white temples, emerald buddhas, spas in the jungle, tropical paradise beaches, living shrimp salad, stink fruit juice and many other funny things. As always when I travel, I was looking for outstanding designs and inspirations in Thailand. And once more it showed how important a consistent corporate design is. A corporate design guarantees a high value of brand recognition. Just take a look below: Despite the Thai font, I'm sure you know all these products (find the solution at the bottom of this blog post): Red Bull has a special status as it originally comes from Thailand (it was made big worldwide by the Austrian entrepreneur Mr. Mateschitz). The Thai Red Bull also tastes very different! As it's very hip in Thailand to be like a European (skin whitening creme, eye operation etc.), the canned Red Bull - as we know it - is sold as "European Import" in Thailand: Red Bull in the can: "Product of Europe" This is how the Thai Red Bull looks like. In our western culture, it reminds of medicine. As you saw in this blog post, a logo alone is not everything. Only a consistent corporate design concept guarantees a value of brand recognition and thus generates the client's trust in the product. If you need a corporate design, send me an email and I'm happy to help you. Solution product names (order like photos): Colgate Total, Fanta, Sprite, Coca Cola Zero, Danone Actimel. #branding #corporatedesign #packaging #thailand #logo

I confess: I’m a proud owner of an iPhone 4s. Some of you might think now, that I’m old-fashioned or don’t move with the times, especially as the iPhone 4s is not even being sold any more (too "retro" maybe). You should always get the latest iPhone (which currently is the iPhone 6 or 6 plus) – at least when listening to all those Apple followers out there. Yes, Apple has become some kind of religion and also I am a loyal Apple customer as I’m very satisfied with every product I have ever bought from Apple. I’d like to see any other manufacturer do that. But the vast speed which new iPhones are launched at, sometimes wrinkles my brow. The "bad thing" is that you spend a lot of money for iProducts and two years later you have to pay big bucks again in order to get new iProducts that can match new iOS system requirements. At the end of the day, it is an ongoing spiral upwards, consisting of system requirements, new (useful?) features on new devices and their compatibility with iOS. Let me give you an example: The latest operating system iOS8 takes up 7 GB of your iPad. Seven gigabyte! The cheapest iPad (which is what most people might have) has a capacity of only 16 GB, what leaves 9 GB for data. Not very much. Hence: In the middle and long run, an update to iOS8 leads to buying a new iPad with higher capacity at a higher cost. (Apple, you are clever at making money!) But iOS8 had many inconvenient bugs in the beginning. Many people were complaining about what a bad operating system iOS8 is and how much it impairs other functions of a device. I was laughing in my sleeve when my partner got iOS8 on his phone and he could hardly use it any more - even simple telephone calls often failed! (By now, there are of course iOS8 updates that clear out most of those early, bad bugs.) What really aroused my interest in the iPhone 6 Plus though, is the display resolution of 401 ppi (approx. 300 dpi). For comparison: The "ordinary" iPhone 6 as well as the older models still being sold, have a resolution of 326 ppi (approx. 200 dpi). As a designer, I regularly work with data for print and digital purposes. Pictures for print need a resolution of 300 dpi, pictures for digital (Retina display) need a resolution of 200 dpi and pictures for all other digital media (without Retina display) need a resolution of only 72 dpi. You can imagine that picture files for 300 dpi are much bigger than files for 72 dpi. To put it plainly, when looking at a website on the iPhone 6 Plus, the pictures won’t appear crisp because nobody would use 300 dpi pictures on a website as this can drastically increase the website’s loading time. And since the latest Google report came out, we know that the loading speed is a very important figure as regards a website’s ranking on Google (SEO). If you want to optimize your digital products for the iPhone 6 Plus, you have to be prepared for Google punishing you by impairing your website’s ranking. Great. How does that affect iPhone apps? iPhone apps will end up having longer loading times. An iPhone app with let’s say 30 pictures at 72 dpi is easy to handle; but at 300 dpi, those 30 pictures might be a challenge for unpatient iPhone users. Solution for the designer: Use less photos and more vector graphics (vector graphics don’t have pixels)? Worth a thought. Realistic? Yes and no. I can imagine Apple taking the display resolution of 401 ppi onto iPads in future. As a designer I am horror-stricken by this thought. We will see how Apple proceeds with this philosophy. Apple’s touch ID technology. Well, the NSA will be cheered. #apple #iphone #iphone6 #iphone6plus

A publisher decides to offer his magazines also for tablets in various app stores. Great idea! In order to execute this challenging task successfully, you need an app magazine expert who also knows about processes that are typical for publishing companies. Here are 10 things to avoid when publishing a magazine on a tablet: 1. BAD NAVIGATION With a print magazine, the reader knows to turn the page to continue reading. With an app magazine, there are twice as many options where to swipe to. Without a good guidance system, the reader might get lost. 2. TOO MANY ANIMATIONS Flashing buttons that clutter the page are annoying for many readers. Animations supporting the content are good, but not just for the sake of having them. 3. TOO MUCH COPY As tablet screens are back-lit, the reader’s eyes become tired more easily compared to print-reading. It might be worth reducing the amount of copy a bit. 4. TOO SMALL FONTS Attention: 1 page print magazine does not equal 1 page app magazine! The copy on tablet screens should be bigger than in the print magazine to improve readability. This results in a smaller amount of copy on 1 tablet page than on 1 print page. If you use too small fonts, readers have to zoom in and out what is not very convenient. 5. NOT ENOUGH PHOTOS Tablet magazines need multimedia fodder to make the app even more interesting for your readers. 6. PRINT PDF COPY IN THE APP Producing an app magazine on a regular basis, costs money. This money has to be earned! If your app is a 1-to-1-copy of your print PDF (incl. advertisements), you lose out on converting paying print advertisement clients into paying app advertisement clients. No income with the app = no budget to create a great app magazine and to earn good money. 7. PHOTOS WITH 72 DPI A tablet is a digital device. Yes. For digital devices you need photos with a resolution of 72 dpi. Yes and no. With 72 dpi you won’t go far on an iPad with Retina display. Here you need 200 dpi. And please: Tablet magazines with mini photos are spooky! 8. LINKS TO WEBSITES NOT OPTIMIZED FOR TABLETS Only link to websites that are optimized for tablets. Remember: Your app is viewed on a tablet! 9. TOO LITTLE INTERACTIVE FEATURES Tablets have a TOUCH screen. So let your readers touch the content and add interactive features to your magazine. Also, Apple might not even approve your app for the app store unless your app has something interactive to show. And: You wanted to offer an app magazine, so provide interactivities! Otherwise, you might as well stay with print only. 10. NO CONSISTENT BUTTON DESIGN Usability is very important. This is why you should have a consistent design for your interactive buttons. Offer your publications as an app! Simply send me an email and I’ll be happy to help you. #android #app #digitalpublishing #editorialdesign #interactive #ipad #magazine #tablet #retina #userexperience

Reading a magazine on a tablet can be a challenging thing – especially when there is no good navigation and the user does not know where to go next at the end of a page. In fact, there are four possible directions to swipe to. Here I show you seven examples of great navigation that improves the usability for the reader. INSPIRE (BY ADOBE) The bottom right arrow shows that the user has reached the end of the article and would have to scroll up to go back to the beginning of the article. However, it does not tell the user where to scroll next in order to read the NEXT article. The user has to find that out himself. Adobe should have thought about the user-friendliness a bit more here. ZMK AKTUELL I did the ZMK Aktuell app for the Spitta Verlag in Balingen (Germany). Based on the print design, the user can see the category in the top right corner. At the bottom left, the user sees where he currently is (third page of three pages of the article). To the right of it you see „zum Artikelanfang“ (translation: „back to start of article“). By tapping this, the user is directed back to the beginning of the article (page 1/3 in this case). The bottom right arrow shows the user to scroll to the right to get to the next article. THE RED BULLETIN At the end of each article in the Red Bulletin, the user sees small arrows pointing to the left and to the right. They indicate where to scroll for the previous or next article. The home button in the middle directs the user back to the starting page of the app magazine. The app icon top left opens up the content table. Well executed, I think. WIRED (UK) The Wired Magazine (UK edition) has a black navigation bar on the left handside all the way through the article. The white arrow pointing down shows the user to scroll down to continue reading the article. Reaching the end of the article, the white arrow pointing up with the hint „top“ explains exactly what it does. BLICKPUNKT LKW+BUS Based on the print editorial design of my long-term client Blickpunkt LKW+BUS, I designed the app magazine. The white arrow at the bottom right shows the user to scroll down to read the article. The black arrow in the bottom right corner tells the user to swipe to the right to get to the next article. The white arrow with black outline brings the user back to the beginning of the article when tapping on it. ZF DRIVE The navigation of the ZF Drive app is really interesting. A plus symbol in the light grey box at the bottom left opens up the navigation. Reaching that, the user can go to the Kiosk, start page, table of contents, to the previous or next article. The minus symbol closes the navigation again. INFOGRAPHICS BY HCG CORPORATE DESIGNS When creating my app „Infographics by HCG corporate designs“, I decided to go for a consistent white menu bar at the bottom of each page. As this is not a magazine but a collection of static and interactive/animated infographics I’ve designed over the years, it’s quite practical for the user to go to different pages at any time. The arrows pointing left and right show how to get to the previous or next page. If you want to publish your publication on a tablet, simply get in touch with me to get a free quote. #android #ios #ipad #magazine #tablet #interactive #ux #digitalpublishing #navigation #userexperience